TURA: Timber smugglers have been found Tata Sumo carrier vehicles to smuggle out their consignment and avoid detection by forest officials in Garo Hills. One such case was detected in Rongkhon area of Tura when forest officials during a raid at a house on Friday night found a stack of timber neatly piled up and concealed inside a Tata Sumo vehicle waiting for a potential buyer.
The apprehended men were identified as Sangkal A Sangma, Mithun D Shira, Greping Sangma and Sengsran R Marak.
The four accused smugglers who hail from Williamnagar, were taken into custody for their alleged involvement in illegal felling of trees inside Baija reserve forest near Williamnagar town. The four had sawn the wood and brought it in the sumo vehicle to Tura for sale when they were picked up by forest officials.
Illegal felling of trees has been rampant in Garo Hills in most of its reserve forests with arrest and conviction rates being extremely low. Most of the illegal felling has been taking place in the forests of East and North Garo Hills districts and smugglers have long been accused of bribing officials to get their consignment across into neighbouring Assam.
